Just as promised, President Muhammadu Buhari sent the list of his ministerial nominees to the Senate yesterday.
From the left, Rotimi Amaechi, Muhammadu Buhari, Babatunde Fashola
Senate President Bukola Saraki on Wednesday, September 30 received
the first set of names of would-be ministers to be screened by
lawmakers.
The list was presented to Saraki after plenary at about 5pm by the
President’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari and Senior Special Assistant
(SSA) on National Assembly Matters Ita Enang.
On his twitter handle at about 5:20 p.m, Saraki wrote: “I can now confirm that I just received the list of ministerial nominees.”
The list was submitted in a sealed envelope by Kyari and Enang, The Nation reports
The Senate President’s spokesman, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said: “Dr.
Saraki, following the tradition of the Senate, decided that the envelope
will remain sealed till Tuesday October 6, when during the plenary
sitting of the Upper legislative chamber, it will be opened and the list
read to Senators.”
Sources privy to the list, last night revealed that key leaders of
the All Progressives Congress (APC), ex-senators, technocrats and
ex-governors are on the list.
APC chieftain and former Minister Mr. Audu Ogbeh; Southeast APC
leader Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu and Director General of the Buhari campaign
organisation and former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi
are likely to be on the list.
Others presented for senators’ screening are former Governors
Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti); former Chief of Army
Staff Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazzau and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria
(SAN) Mr. Abubakar Malami.
Three women – a former Ogun State Commissioner for Finance, Mrs
Kemi Adeosun, Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan and Mrs Amina J. Mohammed,
Special Assistant to UN Secretary General on Post-2015 Development
Planning are also ministerial nominees.
Others on the list are Senator Hadi Sirika, a pilot, who
represented Katsina North in the senate between 2011 and 2015. He was
elected on the ticket of Buhari’s former party, the Congress for
Progressive Change(CPC) and a former Anambra State Governor, Chris
Nwabueze Ngige. Ngige, a medical doctor, was also a senator between 2011
and 2015.
There are also Solomon Dalong and Ibe Kachikwu, the Group Managing
Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), who is
likely to be Minister of State for Petroleum since Buhari has announced
himself as oil minister.
Osagie Ehanire, Udoma Udo-Udoma, Ahmed Isa Ibeto, Sulaiman Adamu and Ibrahim Jibril are also on the list, according to sources.